HONOLULU – The Hawai'i baseball team secured a series sweep of San Diego State with a 6-5 comeback victory in extra innings Sunday, capped off by
Jordan Donahue's walk-off single in the 10th inning.
The Rainbow Warriors trailed 5-1 in the eighth inning, but scored the final five runs of the game to complete the weekend sweep of the Aztecs and improve to 15-7 overall. UH's 15 wins are the most it has had through the first 22 games of a season since 2007.
San Diego State starting pitcher Xavier Cardenas kept the UH hitters off balance all game, holding the 'Bows to a run on two hits heading into the eighth inning. The 'Bows finally chased Cardenas from the game with back-to-back walks to start the eighth inning, setting up the comeback against the Aztec bullpen. Hawai'i would score three runs in the eighth, all on fielder's choices to cut the deficit to 5-4.
Matthew Miura then delivered the game-tying RBI single with one out in the bottom of the ninth to send it to extras tied at five.
After
Danny Veloz worked his second straight three-up, three down inning in the 10th, the first three 'Bows reached base to start the bottom half to bring up Donahue with the bases loaded. The junior smacked a 2-2 pitch over the Aztec right fielder's head to score
Kyson Donahue to win it and finish off the sweep.
The Aztecs jumped out to an early lead with two runs in the first inning off UH starter
Itsuki Takemoto. UH got on the board with a run in the second inning, but SDSU came right back with two more in the third to go up 4-1 and added another in the fifth before the Rainbow Warrior rally starting in the eighth.
Veloz earned his second win of the weekend with another dominant outing, retiring all six batters he faced while striking out one. On the weekend, the junior retired 12 of the 13 batters he faced with the only batter to reach getting on via a strikeout and wild pitch.
Nainoa Cardinez also gave the 'Bows two perfect innings of relief, retiring the Aztecs in order in the seventh and eighth.
Jordan Donahue turned in his third straight multi-hit game, going 2-for-6 with his first career walk-off hit.
Kyson Donahue also turned in his third multi-hit game of the weekend, finishing 2-for-2 while walking and scoring the game-winning run. Hawai'i batters finished the game with no strikeouts and 10 walks, marking the first time since May 3, 2014 that a UH team did not strike out in a game.
The Rainbow Warriors jump back into conference play with a big three-game series against UC Irvine that opens Thursday at 6:35 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.
